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Told at the Club · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section ten of Vating Huntin's Stories by Sergeant Kaim. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Told at the
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  Speaker 1: club speaking of Antingating, said a man at the club
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  Speaker 1: house on the bank of the Passi River in Manila
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  Speaker 1: one evening, I have had an experience in that line
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  Speaker 1: myself which was rather striking. An American officer at the
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  Speaker 1: club that evening had just been telling us about a
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  Speaker 1: Native prisoner captured by his command some time before in
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  Speaker 1: one of the smaller islands, who, when searched, had been
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  Speaker 1: found to be wearing next his skin a sort of
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  Speaker 1: undershirt on which was roughly painted a crude map of
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  Speaker 1: certain of the islands of the archipelago. This shirt, it seemed,
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  Speaker 1: the officer went on to explain, the man regarded as
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  Speaker 1: a powerful anting anting which would be able to protect
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  Speaker 1: him from injury in any of the islands represented on it.
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  Speaker 1: That he had been taken alive instead of having been
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  Speaker 1: killed in the fight in which he was captured. The
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  Speaker 1: man firmly believed to be due to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: he was wearing the shirt at the time. A Native
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  Speaker 1: servant in the employ of one of the officers of
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  Speaker 1: the company had explained later that such an anting anting
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  Speaker 1: as this was highly prized, and that it increased in
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  Speaker 1: value with its age. Only certain wise men had the
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  Speaker 1: right to add a new island to the number of
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  Speaker 1: those painted on the garment, and before this could be done,
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  Speaker 1: the wearer of the shirt must have performed some great
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  Speaker 1: deed of valor in that particular island. The magic garment
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  Speaker 1: was worn only in time of war or when danger
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  Speaker 1: was known to threaten, and was bequeathed from father to son,
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  Speaker 1: or sometimes changed ownership in a less peaceful way. What
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  Speaker 1: was the experience which you have referred to, I finally
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  Speaker 1: asked the man who had spoken, when he did not
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  Speaker 1: seem inclined to go on of his own accord. The
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  Speaker 1: man hesitated a moment before he replied to my question,
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  Speaker 1: and something in his manner then, or perhaps when he
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  Speaker 1: did speak, made me feel as if he were sorry
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  Speaker 1: that he had spoken at all. It is a story
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  Speaker 1: I do not like to tell, he said, and then
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  Speaker 1: added hastily a little later, as if in explanation, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I do not like to tell it because I cannot
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  Speaker 1: help feeling when I do tell it that people do
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  Speaker 1: not believe me to be telling the truth. Some years ago,
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  Speaker 1: he continued. I went down to the island of Mindoro
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  Speaker 1: to hunt timarau, one of the few large wild animals
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  Speaker 1: of the islands, a queer beast half way between a
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  Speaker 1: wild hog and a buffalo. I hired as a guide
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  Speaker 1: and tracker, a wiry old Mangyan native who seemed to
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  Speaker 1: have an instinct for finding a timarau trail and following
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  Speaker 1: it where my less skillful eyes could see nothing but
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  Speaker 1: undisturbed forest, and who also seemed to have absolutely no fear,
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  Speaker 1: a thing which was even more remarkable than his skill,
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  Speaker 1: since the natives, as a general thing, are notably timid
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  Speaker 1: about getting in the way of an angry timarau. As
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I did not blame them so
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  Speaker 1: very much for this, after I had had one experience
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  Speaker 1: myself in trying to dodge the wild charge of one
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  Speaker 1: of these animals, infuriated by a bullet which I had
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  Speaker 1: sent into his body. Perikodo, that was the old man's name,
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  Speaker 1: never seemed to have the least fear. I was surprised then,
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  Speaker 1: one morning, when the weather and forest were both in
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  Speaker 1: prime condition for a hunt, to have my guide flatly
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  Speaker 1: refused to leave our camp, nothing which I could say
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  Speaker 1: or do had the least influence upon him. I reasoned
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  Speaker 1: and threatened, and coaxed and swore, but all to no effect.
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  Speaker 1: When I asked him why he would not go, What
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  Speaker 1: was the matter? Was he ill? He did not seem
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  Speaker 1: to be inclined to answer at first, except to say
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  Speaker 1: that he was not ill. But finally later in the
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  Speaker 1: day he explained to me that he had had a
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  Speaker 1: warning that it would not be safe for him to
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  Speaker 1: go hunting that day, that his life would be in
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  Speaker 1: danger if he did go. Periko had about the islands
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  Speaker 1: much more than most of the men of his tribe.
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  Speaker 1: He had even been to Manila once or twice, and
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  Speaker 1: so not only knew much more about the world than
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  Speaker 1: most Mangyans did, but had also picked up enough of
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish language so that he could speak it fairly well.
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  Speaker 1: In this way, he was able to tell me finally
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  Speaker 1: how the warning had come to him, and why he
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  Speaker 1: put so much confidence in it. He also told me
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  Speaker 1: this was why he had been so brave about the
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  Speaker 1: hunting before he knew that he was not in any danger.
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  Speaker 1: So long as he was not forewarned. When he had
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  Speaker 1: been warned, he avoided the danger by staying quietly in
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  Speaker 1: camp or in some place of safety. Even after he
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  Speaker 1: had told me as much as this, Perico would not
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  Speaker 1: explain to me just how the warning had come, until
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  Speaker 1: at last he said that the stone had told him.
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  Speaker 1: This stone, he said, was a wonderful unting, a thing
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  Speaker 1: which had been in his family for many years. His
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  Speaker 1: father had given it to him, and his grandfather had
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  Speaker 1: given it to him. His father once, many many years before,
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  Speaker 1: there had been an ancestor of his who had been
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  Speaker 1: famous through all the tribe for his goodness and wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: This man, when very old, had one day taken shelter
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  Speaker 1: under a tree from a furious storm. While he was there,
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  Speaker 1: fire from the sky had come down upon the tree,
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  Speaker 1: and when the storm was over, the man was found dead.
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  Speaker 1: Grasped tightly in one of the dead man's hands was
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  Speaker 1: found a small flat stone, smooth cut and polished, which
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  Speaker 1: no one of his family had ever seen him have before. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: the stone was looked upon as a precious unting and
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  Speaker 1: thing sent down from the sky, and was religiously watched
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  Speaker 1: until its mysterious properties were understood, and it was learned
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  Speaker 1: that it had the power to forewarn its owner against
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  Speaker 1: impending evil. When danger threatened its owner, Perico said, the
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  Speaker 1: stone glowed at night with a strange light, which he
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  Speaker 1: believed was due to its celestial origin. At all other
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  Speaker 1: times it was a plain, dull stone. The night before,
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  Speaker 1: for the first time in months, the stone had flashed
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  Speaker 1: forth its strange light, and as a result, its owner
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  Speaker 1: would do nothing which would place him in any danger
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  Speaker 1: which he could avoid. I thought of all the strange
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  Speaker 1: stories I had read and heard of meteors falling from
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  Speaker 1: the sky, and of phosphoric rocks, and of little known
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  Speaker 1: chemical elements which were mysteriously sensitive to certain atmospheric conditions,
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  Speaker 1: and wondered if Periko's stone could be any of these.
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  Speaker 1: All My requests to be allowed to see the wonderful stone, however,
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  Speaker 1: proved fruitless. Periko was obdurate. There was a tradition that
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  Speaker 1: it must not be looked at by daylight, he said,
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  Speaker 1: and that the eyes of no one but its owner
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  Speaker 1: should gaze upon it. And so for eight beautiful days
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  Speaker 1: of magnificent hunting weather, that aggravating heathen stone kept us
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  Speaker 1: idle there in the midst of the Mindoro forest. I
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  Speaker 1: could not go alone, and Perico simply would not go
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  Speaker 1: so long as the stone glowed at night, as he
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  Speaker 1: informed me each morning it had done. It was in
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  Speaker 1: vain that I fretted and offered him twice and four times,
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  Speaker 1: and finally, with a desire to see how much in
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  Speaker 1: earnest the man really was ten times his regular wages
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  Speaker 1: if he would go with me for just one hunt.
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  Speaker 1: He simply would not stir out of the camp until
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of the ninth day he met me
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  Speaker 1: with a cheerful face and said, Senor, we will hunt
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  Speaker 1: to day. The stone is black once more. And hunt
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  Speaker 1: we did that day and many more, for the stone
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  Speaker 1: remained accommodatingly dark after that, and we had good luck too.
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  Speaker 1: When I came back to Manila, I brought Perico with me.
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  Speaker 1: He had begun to have serious trouble with one of
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  Speaker 1: his eyes, which threatened to render him unable to follow
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  Speaker 1: the work of hunting of which he was so fond.
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  Speaker 1: I tried to make him believe that this was the
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  Speaker 1: danger of which he claimed he had been warned by
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  Speaker 1: the stone, but he would not agree to this, saying
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  Speaker 1: that his hunting hunting always foretold only a violent death
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  Speaker 1: or some serious bodily injury in Manila. I had him
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  Speaker 1: see that Jose Rizal, who afterwards became so prominent in
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  Speaker 1: the political troubles of the islands, and who had such
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  Speaker 1: a tragic later history. Sennor Isal, who had studied in Europe,
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  Speaker 1: was a skillful oculist, and an operation which he performed
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  Speaker 1: on Perico's I was entirely successful. I kept the old
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  Speaker 1: man with me until he was fully recovered, and then
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  Speaker 1: sent him back to his native island. Before he went,
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  Speaker 1: he thanked me over and over again for what I
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  Speaker 1: had done, and kept telling me that some time he
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  Speaker 1: would pay me for it all. I laughed at him
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  Speaker 1: at first, not thinking what he meant, until just before
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  Speaker 1: he was to go to the boat, he clasped my
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  Speaker 1: hands in both his and said, Senor, I have no
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  Speaker 1: children to leave the anting a thing of my family too.
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  Speaker 1: When I die, it shall be yours. I would have
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  Speaker 1: laughed again then, had it not been that the poor
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  Speaker 1: old fellow was so much in earnest that it would
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  Speaker 1: have been cruel. As it was, I thanked him and
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  Speaker 1: told him I hoped he would live many years to
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  Speaker 1: be the guardian of the stone and to be guarded
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  Speaker 1: by it himself. After Periko had gone, I forgot all
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  Speaker 1: about him. Imagine my surprise, then, when a little more
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  Speaker 1: than a year afterward, I received a small packet from
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  Speaker 1: a man whom I knew in Kalupan, the seaport of Mendoro,
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  Speaker 1: and a letter telling me that my old guide was dead,
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  Speaker 1: and that during the illness which had preceded his death,
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  Speaker 1: he had arranged to have the packet which came with
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  Speaker 1: the letter sent to me. The package and letter reached
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  Speaker 1: me one morning. Of course, I knew what Perico had
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  Speaker 1: sent me, and, foolish as it may seem, a bit
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  Speaker 1: of tenderness for the old man's genuine faith in his
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  Speaker 1: talisman made me mindful of his admonition that the stone
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  Speaker 1: must not be exposed to the light of day, restrain
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  Speaker 1: my curiosity to open the package until I was in
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  Speaker 1: my rooms that night. What I found, when at last
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  Speaker 1: I held the mysterious charm in my hands was a smooth, dark,
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  Speaker 1: flint like disk, about an inch and a half in
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  Speaker 1: diameter and perhaps half an inch in thickness. Whatever the
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  Speaker 1: stone might have done for its former owners, or might
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  Speaker 1: do for me at some other time, it certainly had
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  Speaker 1: no errand to perform that night. It was just a plain,
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  Speaker 1: dark stone, and no matter how long I looked at
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  Speaker 1: it or in what position, it did not change its appearance. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: half provoked with myself at my thoughts, I put the
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  Speaker 1: stone into a little cabinet in which there were other
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  Speaker 1: curious souvenirs of my travels in the Islands, and forgot it.
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  Speaker 1: Two years after that it became necessary for me to
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  Speaker 1: go to Europe. I had taken passage on one of
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  Speaker 1: the regular steamers from Manila to Hong Kong, and was
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  Speaker 1: to reship from there. As I expected to return in
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  Speaker 1: a few months, I did not give up my lodgings,
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  Speaker 1: but before I started I packed away much of my
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  Speaker 1: stuff for safe keeping. As I was busy at the
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  Speaker 1: office during the day, I did most of this packing
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  Speaker 1: in the evenings. In the course of this work, I
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  Speaker 1: came to the little cabinet of which I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: and threw it open in order to stuff with with
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  Speaker 1: cotton so that the contents would not rattle about when moved.
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  Speaker 1: The man who was telling the story stopped at this
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  Speaker 1: point so long that we who sat there in the
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  Speaker 1: smoking room of the club listening to him, were afraid
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  Speaker 1: that he was not going to continue. At last he said,
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  Speaker 1: this is the part of the story which I do
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  Speaker 1: not like to tell. On the black velvet lining of
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  Speaker 1: the cabinet, surrounded by the jumble of curios among which
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  Speaker 1: it had been tossed, lay old Perico's stone, not the plain,
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  Speaker 1: dark stone which I had put there, but a faintly
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  Speaker 1: glowing circle of lustrous light. I shut the lid of
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  Speaker 1: the cabinet down, locked the box, and put the key
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  Speaker 1: in my pocket. But I did no more packing that night.
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  Speaker 1: I came down here to the club and staid as
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  Speaker 1: long as I could get anybody to stay with me,
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  Speaker 1: and talked of everything under the sun, except the one
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  Speaker 1: thing which I was all the time thinking about. The
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  Speaker 1: Next day, I told myself I was a fool and
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  Speaker 1: crazy into the bargain, and that my eyes had deceived me.
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  Speaker 1: And then, in spite of all this, when I went
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  Speaker 1: home at night, I could hardly wait for dust to
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  Speaker 1: come that I might open the cabinet. The stone lay
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  Speaker 1: on the velvet, just as the night before, as if
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  Speaker 1: it were a thing on fire. I said to myself
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  Speaker 1: that I would have some common sense and would exercise
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  Speaker 1: my will power, and went on with my packing with
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  Speaker 1: furious energy. But I did not put the cabinet where
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  Speaker 1: I could not get at it. The boat for Hong Kong,
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  Speaker 1: on which I had taken passage, was to sail the
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  Speaker 1: next night. I finished my work and said good bye
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  Speaker 1: to my acquaintances, and went on board. Fifteen minutes before
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  Speaker 1: the steamer sailed, I had my luggage tumbled from her
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  Speaker 1: deck back on to the wharf, and came ashore, swearing
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  Speaker 1: at myself for a fool, and knowing that I would
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  Speaker 1: be well laughed at and quizzed for my fickleness by
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  Speaker 1: every one who knew me. The man stopped again after
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  Speaker 1: a little One of the men who had been listening
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  Speaker 1: to him said, in a voice which sounded strangely softened,
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  Speaker 1: I remember that was the calling the name of a
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  Speaker 1: steamer which brought to us all the recollection of one
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  Speaker 1: of the most awful sea tragedies. Of those terrible tropic
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  Speaker 1: waters were sometimes sea and wind seemed to be in
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  Speaker 1: league to buffet and destroy, Yes, said the man who
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  Speaker 1: had told the story. No person who sailed on board
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  Speaker 1: her that night was ever seen again, and only bits
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  Speaker 1: of wreckage on one of the northern reefs gave any
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  Speaker 1: hint of her fate end of Section ten. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: maricel Que